With billions of SMS (short message service) messages flying across the globe, some educators now are expressing concern that students may have to unlearn their shortcut communications in order to properly absorb traditional instruction. The language of chat rooms and instant messaging is constantly being reinvented and condensed to minimize thumb strain on the part of phone-keypad typists. YKWIM?

That is, “You know what I mean?”

Santa Cruz, California-based LightSurf Technologies was founded in 1998 in the belief that mobile-device users’ appetite for sharing and consuming digital content would become universal once appropriate technology and business models were deployed. With the release of its new LightSurf 5 Multimedia Messaging Platform, the company feels that the time is now.

Don’t Shoot the Messager

There has yet to be any global cultural metamorphosis surrounding MMS, however. Video clips, graphic images, sound and music files, and digital photography circulate among some early adopters of mobile technology but have not resulted in a sea change. There is one interesting exception: Camera phones now are starting to be banned in many of the venues that forbid traditional cameras, such as concerts, courtrooms, conferences, health clubs and other public facilities. This is a sure sign that the awareness level of at least one form of MMS has reached an inflection point.

In order for the market to really heat up, though, the average consumer must embrace specific multimedia applications and feel comfortable that they are both equitably priced and responsibly managed by mobile operators.

The New Kahn Game

At LightSurf’s helm is French entrepreneur Philippe Kahn, who founded Borland International and guided it during its rise to become a serious Microsoft competitor during the late 1980s. He later founded Starfish Software, a managed mobile synchronization company that was acquired by Motorola.

“MMS is the next logical step in the evolution of global wireless communication,” Kahn told NewsFactor. Predicting rapid growth, Kahn said consumers now are willing to pay for rich multimedia content, such as picture-messaging.

It is perhaps fitting that LightSurf makes its headquarters in Santa Cruz. Bombora, the Hook and Harbour’s Mouth are just a few of the notable surf breaks off the coast, making the city popular with the northern California surfer crowd.

But the water off Santa Cruz, about an hour south of San Jose, is cold. The shoreline is jagged and rocky. And the area is known to be a hangout for sharks. Only those who are in the company of an experienced guide who knows how to avoid the pitfalls and potential drawbacks of the region can experience the best waves that California has to offer.

Smoother Sailing Ahead

Likewise, mobile operators may need an experienced guide to help them attain high user-experience levels as their customers play with new MMS and picture-mail services. LightSurf’s core technology proposes to keep the company off the rocks. Its multimedia messaging platform supports features that intelligently sense each target device and transcode media for optimal display. That is actually quite a technological hurdle to overcome.

With an ever-increasing array of mobile handsets, each with different screen ratios, color capabilities and dimensions, major entertainment companies are not rushing to embrace MMS. They do not want their well-branded images and logos mangled on a handset that has a narrower than average screen, for example.

Yessir, That’s My Baby

And users interested in handset photography will be disappointed by expensive new phones and data plans if a picture of a newborn baby, say, ends up having a green tint and a stretched face. That can be the result when images are arbitrarily manipulated to fit the wide variety of screens that a picture message might be viewed on.

Anything that guarantees that multimedia content will be viewed “as intended” on all devices — like LightSurf — almost certainly will spur acceptance and growth.

The LightSurf 5 platform is the brains behind Sprint’s PCS Vision camera phones, such as the Sanyo 5300. The company also has deals with mmO2 in Europe and with Kodak, proving that the technology is equally at home in both CDMA and GSM environments and is compatible with leading digital-imaging technology.

Sprint to the Finish

Sprint’s camera-phone subscribers get their own Web pages to archive and upload the camera phone’s pictures. They can transmit images directly from their handsets or wait until they have access to a PC. Earlier industry attempts at MMS photography left disappointed users holding phones with limited storage capacity, meaning that the photographs they took sometimes deleted previously stored images.

LightSurf’s managed ASP (application service provider) model of operation and massive storage capability offer Sprint subscribers almost limitless archiving, which should lead to greater customer satisfaction and usage (and increased data revenue for Sprint).

The new suite of LightSurf 5-enabled services, including custom user-interface designs, intelligent media optimization and premium-content delivery, will allow operators to compete for new customers and new revenue, and for the greater evolution of the MMS market.